The advancement in technology has permeated the world and is applied by everyone and every organization. It has enabled innovations, inventions, and breakthroughs in the world. Businesses have not been left behind in embracing technology. Through these, they have managed to produce goods and services effectively and efficiently through cost savings. The timely production has enabled them to address customer needs satisfactorily. Consequently, allowing the firms to generate a lot of revenue that is vital for their success and competition in the marketplace.
The adoption of technology in the business has been manifested entrenched in business departments such as production, manufacturing, marketing, finance, research and development, and customer service.
Communication has been made easy giving the business an opportunity to reach the market efficiently. This has made advertising aimed at informing customers of the existence of new products and its features easy. This has enabled the businesses to increase their market share by penetrating their existing markets while at the same time venturing into new ones.
The impact of technology on business is two-fold due to its merits and demerits. Information technology cannot be only having positive effects since its negative sides are also felt by the organizations that adopt it.
The essay will be based on three influences of information technology on the positive and negative side. Additionally, the evidence regarding the two sides have been indicated from studies in paragraphs.
Data usage
The use of information technology enables a business to maintain its data in an organized fashion. The technology can allow them to store voluminous data in a safe and retrievable manner. It allows the business to retrieve the data within a short period which could prove difficult in a manual (Huizingh, 2011, p.2). Additionally, it enables a business to have some details about its customers which enables it to conduct data mining that is helpful in performing promotions, adverts, and marketing. This attribute makes its work easy especially in large organizations that require a lot of data pertaining to the organization`s details. Moreover, an organization can use the financial data to establish the performance trends of the organization thus project its future performance accurately.
Data security can be abused when critical personal details about customers leak to the public. Through this, the privacy of an individual gets violated. This happens when the system gets hacked or when an employee discloses some information to third parties (Gilman, 2009, p.27). The hackers use the information to harass and stalk the business` customers. This can be through the use of their phone numbers, knowledge of their residential areas or financial strength. In other instances, the organization can use it to monitor its employees which may hamper the productivity of employees. The managers normally do this through the instilling of closed-circuit television in some areas of the business. The privacy can also be violated by putting software in the organization`s server that monitors what every employee does with the computers. This can be used to determine the sites visited by an employee, the number of people he or she chatted with which makes such employees vulnerable in the business.
The use of data through what is referred to as open innovation has made businesses thrive (Huizingh, 2011, p.3). This has been made possible by using the information from customers to improve their products. This is a classic example of how an organization can tap from the knowledge of the external environment to advance its course. This process enables the organization to understand the market, its needs, trends, and design its products to meet the specified requirements of its customers. Additionally, it will learn from its competitor the business tricks involve in the trade and develop them into its system for posterity. The use of information technology in business is vulnerable to external hacking like in the case of the banking industry (Gilman, 2009, p.27). It gets negative when criminals use the technology in advancing their plight. The examples have been to use the employee details to withdraw money from their accounts, extort money by use of mobile phones, and encrypt their debit cards with the aim of siphoning money from their accounts.
The positive impact of information technology regarding data in the finance department is its ability to source for funds from financial organizations and banks (Nanehkaran, 2003, p.192). This comes in handy when a business is facing financial problems, or would wish to expand its operations. The economic data gets vital as it enables the financial institutions to gauge the performance of the business within a short time.
The use of technology enhances the efficiency
Whenever an organization acquires technology, its work is made easy. This can be felt from the ease of keeping records, access and retrieval of information, communication among departments, manufacturing, and processing of data. Through this, an organization is guaranteed of operating effectively without any interruptions (Dahlander, " Gann, 2010, p.699). When used in a manufacturing business, the goods become ready to the customer at the earliest time without any delay. This is achieved through the large-scale production of the products. This enhances the customer`s satisfaction and enables the business to attract more customers and generate extra revenue. Additionally, it becomes more competitive than its counterparts who have not adopted the technology.
The speed in processing of goods and services is dangerous to employees since it makes them lose their jobs. The technology`s ability to speed up tasks makes human labor irrelevant (Sandulli, Baker, " López-Sánchez, 2014, p.700). This arises due to its ability to do what more than ten people can do in a given duration. This makes the organization`s management to lay off some employees as a result of redundancy. Eventually, many people become jobless as a result of being compared to machines.
Moreover, the managers may consider the sacking of the employees as a form of savings to the organization (Sandulli, Baker, " López-Sánchez, 2014, p.702). In some occasions, the employees engage in unproductive activities such as sending non-business emails to one another at the expense of working for the organization. Apart from that, some waste time on social media such as Facebook, Skype, and Instagram. Furthermore, they stream live videos thus making them lazy due to substituting work with socialization.
It was noted that the use of information technology by small businesses does not necessarily lead into efficiency (Sandulli, Baker, " López-Sánchez, 2014, p.701). This is because organizations are guilty of mismatching jobs. This arises due to the inability of the persons in charge to streamline the organization effectively. This was established during the study of Spanish service firms. This is evidenced by giving employees jobs that they cannot perform by the assumption that the machines will work automatically. The inefficiency and redundancy forced some employees to be laid off.
The use of information technology as well as external interactions with other firms enables an organization to be efficient and compete favorably (Dahlander, " Gann, 2010, p.699). The efficiency is enhanced by learning from the other businesses and establishing the recent changes and development in technology. Through this, the business acquires an efficient gadget and replaces with an old, and inefficient machine that may slow operations and be costly for maintenance cost.
Cost Element
The adoption of technology by a business gives it an opportunity to save on cost and time. Concerning time, it enables the processes and procedures that are required to perform a task to be done in a shorter time (Nanehkaran, 2013, p.192). This would take longer durations in case of manual tasks. Regarding cost, the number of employees who could conduct an activity is significantly reduced thus saving on their payment.
The use of technology entails the acquisition of computers, laptops, software, and other sophisticated equipment. These items require the managers of the business to continuously train the staff on any new development in the system. Additionally, the cost of repair and maintenance drain the business financially (Waeyenbergh, " Pintelon, 2002, p.306). This arises from the replenishment of toners and cartridges whenever the toner gets finished. It also acts as a cost to incorporate the internet and Wifi into the business as it will entail periodical subscriptions regarding payment by the organization. Furthermore, it will get costlier if the employees take a lot of time watching videos on YouTube thus inflating the costs to higher levels.
It has been demonstrated that the use of technology enhances efficiency through the increase in the volume of production. Through this, this volume and efficiency, the use of fuel, electricity, and other overheads reduce significantly. Eventually, the business gets the opportunity to maximize its profits which would not be possible in case the work was to be done manually. This explains why manufacturing companies can work with few employees but still manage to make profits. The use of information technology has got its cost of maintenance (Waeyenbergh, " Pintelon, 2002, p.300). An organization needs to establish such maintenance costs and incorporate it into its budgets. These entail sourcing of its supplies every time it runs out of hand.
Conclusion
The application of information technology has got its positive and negative effect on an organization. The business managers are thus required to look into their organization and establish the central aspect of their venture that needs an input of technology. By doing so, they will enable the business balance between the cost and benefits of the technology. This will make the impact of technology on business change to the balance between information technology and business. Consequently, labor redundancies and the cost of acquisition, maintenance, and phasing off of technology will be considered for the good of the business in the future.
References
Waeyenbergh, G. and Pintelon, L., 2002. A framework for maintenance concept development. International journal of production economics, 77(3), pp.299-313.
Gilman, N., 2009. Hacking goes pro. Engineering " Technology, 4(3), pp.26-29.
Dahlander, L. and Gann, D.M., 2010. How open is innovation?. Research policy, 39(6), pp.699-709.
Nanehkaran, Y.A., 2013. An introduction to electronic commerce. International journal of scientific " technology research, 2(4), pp.190-193.
Huizingh, E.K., 2011. Open innovation: State of the art and future perspectives. Technovation, 31(1), pp.2-9.
Sandulli, F.D., Baker, P.M. and López-Sánchez, J.I., 2014. Jobs mismatch and productivity impact of information technology. The Service Industries Journal, 34(13), pp.1060-1074.
